Victor Hugo sitting on the “Rock of Exiles” on the island of Jersey
Famously writing “When freedom returns, I will return” (“Quand la liberté rentrera, je renterai”), Victor Hugo rejected Napoléon III’s amnesty for French exiles during the Second Empire. One of the most renowned nineteenth-century exiled writers, Hugo became an exemplar of the exiled author and a citizen of the world by tenaciously supporting the French Republic in the face of the Emperor. Exile for reasons of politics and censorship was common in the nineteenth century, and still today many writers are forced into exile—or choose exile—because of their ideas.
View from Hugo’s Hauteville House while in exile on Guernsey (Photo: M. Barnett)
Questions central to the Colloquium include these:
What does the exile phenomenon tell us about authors’ roles?
What can students learn about the value of community engagement by considering how following their conscience leads some writers to leave their homeland?
What do writers lose and gain by going into exile?
View from the Hauteville House “look-out” on Guernsey. (Photo: M. Barnett)
We look broadly at exile by expanding the French Department’s Müller Colloquium on Victor Hugo and connecting it with the Colloquium on Exile organized in March by the Spanish and History Departments in collaboration with the Colegio de México. French culture, literature, and history has profound and long-standing connections with both Latin American and Middle Eastern culture; in addition, Hugo’s ideas have had enormous impact in Latin America and Spain. We enhance our exchanges with a performance of Alain Lecompte’s one-man show HUGO LIVE, in which the composer/singer recounts Hugo’s life through his poetry set to music.
Supported in part by the University of Virginia Page-Barbour Fund and co-organized with Professor Hanadi al-Samman (Middle Eastern & South Asian Languages & Cultures).
Participants’ Comments:
A multi-faceted event…
The graduate students did a terrific job!
The carefully researched and gracefully composed presentations showed a depth of
knowledge and analytical skills, and were engagingly delivered.
I very much enjoyed the part of the colloquium I was able to attend, and I heard many good reports that made me wish even more that I could have attended the
whole conference.
Le colloque a permis de faire dialoguer non seulement des chercheurs de différentes disciplines mais aussi de faire se rencontrer chercheurs confirmés, grad et undergrad students.
My warmest thanks for the generous hospitality of all who were in involved in putting everything together.
The opportunity to spend several intensive days with everyone was invaluable in extending and expanding the conversation.
What a wonderful gathering of terrific people with great ideas to share!
I learned so much, and I’m even thinking I should read Les Travailleurs de la mer this summer!
